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Copyright ©2008
Five years on, Roppongi Hills hollowing out
“Over the weekend, I dropped in on Roppongi Hills and found myself in for a surprise,” writes a reporter for evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai (Feb 13). “After watching a movie, we went to grab a bite, and the restaurant where we planned to eat was closed! There was a sign out front explaining that it was ‘Closed for Renewal.’ The pricey Coach and Versace boutiques, at some point, had also been closed.”
This coming April 25 will mark the 5th anniversary of the opening of the Roppongi Hills complex in Minato Ward. And to mark the occasion, many of the original tenants appear to be leaving in droves — perhaps as many as 50.
“Many Hills tenants are coming to the end of their five-year leases,” explains the owner of a restaurant located therein. “We were given an incentive arrangement based on our sales, but were under pressure to boost profitability.”
Taken in that context, the article implies, this is just another way of saying the ostensible rent increase was effectively an eviction.
“Actually he picked a smart time to leave,” an unnamed source in the real estate business tells Nikkan Gendai. “Tenants knew from the beginning that because of high rents they wouldn’t break even. Opening a shop there at the beginning was just a kind of status symbol. But since the incident leading to the arrest of Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie (in Jan. 2006), Roppongi Hills’glamorous image has taken a beating.
“Many businesses,” he adds, “are realizing that for about the same rents, they can relocate to the nearby Midtown complex, or Ginza, both of which have much stronger customer pull these days. And some companies gradually found the notion of being lumped with the decadent ‘Hills-zoku’ (Hills Tribe) to be so unappealing, they movedtheir offices.”
Once the Livedoor fiasco broke the ice, other companies began bailing out. Nikkan Gendai cites such examples as Rakuten, which relocated its corporate headquarters from Roppongi to Shinagawa. Others, such as Yahoo Japan and Konami, just shifted to Midtown, only a few minutes away on foot.
“The reasons for shop closures were determined by the tenants on a case-by-case basis,” is the explanation given a spokesperson for Mori Corp, which manages Roppongi Hills. “We were counting on achieving a modus vivendi with Midtown, and we are not aware of any particular niche. Now after five years, we’ve become better familiarized with customer needs, and Hills is undergoing a renewal process aimed at improving its services.”
Once renovations are completed, visitors to the complex can expect to see more shops and sports-related facilities aimed at families. But Nikkan Gendai appears unconvinced as to whether these extensive “renewals” now underway will ultimately generate profits for Roppongi Hills.
When it’s all said and done, this five-year “boom-to-bust” cycle for glitzy complexes, it would seem, epitomizes Tokyo’s modern-day adaptation of the principles of slash-and-burn agriculture.
February 13, 2008
Japan Today Discussion
19 Total Messages (Click here to show all)
15 Messages Shown (Scroll down for most recent)
| Five years on, Roppongi Hills hollowing out |  |
apecNetwork   (Feb 16 2008 - 02:30) | Rate | Report |
| Five years on, Roppongi Hills hollowing out | |
| Nessie (Feb 16 2008 - 12:55) | Rate | Report |
| never really | |
| smd (Feb 16 2008 - 23:32) | Rate | Report |
| never liked the design | |
| erlik (Feb 17 2008 - 13:40) | Rate | Report |
Midtown at least manages to be rather simple and pleasant. If they had a movie theater, I'd gladly never go to Hills again.
| Five years on, Roppongi Hills hollowing out | |
| demolish (Feb 17 2008 - 20:04) | Rate | Report |
| "Closed for Renewal" | |
| Sarge (Feb 17 2008 - 20:26) | Rate | Report |
| One of the best views of Tokyo | |
| eastokyo (Feb 18 2008 - 16:31) | Rate | Report |
Recommend a trip up there before sunset, and watch a cocktail or two go down with it. Yeah.
| Sarge | |
| erlik (Feb 19 2008 - 15:58) | Rate | Report |
| I love it | |
| wakamiya (Feb 19 2008 - 20:45) | Rate | Report |
| wakamiya | |
| Beelzebub (Feb 20 2008 - 10:06) | Rate | Report |
I've been here long enough to remember when Roppongi was a cozy place, free from hulking neo-modernesque concrete Godzillas. It was much less snobbish, and it had the flavor of a real neighborhood. I don't go there any more because it's truly depressing to see what it's become.
So I thought the Gendai story was spot-on.
| to each his own | |
| wakamiya (Feb 20 2008 - 22:49) | Rate | Report |
Anyway, I remember what it was like before Hills too, and it was OK. But there are hundreds of such neighborhoods left in Shitamachi, or even the back streets of Shinjuku, where I live. Roppongi Hills is one of a kind.
I like Tokyo Midtown too, but it is too bad it is a little to square. But it has a great garden, museum, etc.
Look for what the places have to offer, not what they are missing.
| besides | |
| wakamiya (Feb 21 2008 - 04:55) | Rate | Report |
| wakamiya | |
| Beelzebub (Feb 21 2008 - 10:26) | Rate | Report |
In your previous post, you said you "remember what it was like before the Hills too." But the section fronting Roppongi Dori was mostly a commercial area around the old TV Asahi HQ, Chinese restaurants, shops, and small office buildings, with no "residents" to speak of, i.e., they were either owners or commercial tenants. Secondly, Mori applied his usual tactic, as he did for the former Tansu-cho, and bought the neighborhood out piecemeal over a period of 15 years or so, resorting to the usual arm-twisting, divide-and-conquer tactics ("you might as well take my offer, because both your neighbours did") the Mori Corporation (your employer, I'm starting to wonder?) has become famous for.
I do agree with you though that Roppongi Hills is "one of a kind" --- a giant ferroconcrete phallus thrusting up from the primeval sludge, with both of Roppongi's two cultures completely ignoring each other and neither influencing one another. It perfectly exemplifies the "kakusa-shakai" (social gap between haves and have-nots) that the pundits love to mention these days.
| Hmmm... | |
| wakamiya (Feb 21 2008 - 17:20) | Rate | Report |
Well, Roppongi Hills has lost its title to Tokyo's largest phallic symbol to that new Mode Gakuin Bld. that is almost complete in Shinjuku's west side. It even has two balls at the bottom.
| meh | |
| Lei Xuizang (Mar 11 2008 - 18:31) | Rate | Report |
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